Rubble Woman Monument Dresden

The Rubble Woman Monument sits in the square in front of the New City Hall, or Neues Rathaus, in Dresden’s Old Town. It depicts a woman, often holding a tool, standing as a tribute to the people who cleared the ruins of cities across Germany following the Second World War. These individuals, known as Trümmerfrauen, spent the years after the conflict moving massive amounts of debris by hand, salvaging bricks, and clearing paths through the landscape of broken stone and twisted steel that remained after the firebombing of the city.